Multicultural Content in Special Education Introductory Textbooks

Abstract

In September 1987, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Council for Exceptional Children approved standards and guidelines mandating that teacher education programs in special education provide multicultural education throughout their curricula. These standards and guidelines were revised in February 1991, and Guideline B2.14 became the new multicultural guideline. This article describes a content analysis of 16 recent special education/human exceptionality survey textbooks that was designed to determine the extent to which multicultural information and content were included. A list of multicultural indicators was formulated using ERIC descriptors. Data were categorized according to general location in the textbooks, foundational categories, and pertinent multicultural issues. Results indicated that all 16 texts included some multicultural information and content. Five of the 16 textbooks contained a considerably greater amount of information and content. The findings are discussed within the context of special education teacher education.

A Content Analysis of Interpersonal Coping-Behavior in Japanese and German Primary School Textbooks

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The inclusion of multicultural material in middle school science teachers' resource manuals

“…We examined middle school science teacher's resource manuals to determine: (a) the extent of multicultural content; (b) the distribution of foundational knowledge categories in the multicultural content; and (c) the relationship of the multicultural content to science content. Foundational knowledge categories are categories associating knowledge within established fields of study and were adapted from a study by Foster and Iannaccone (1994).…”

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A Cultural Comparison of Conflict-Solution Styles Displayed in the Japanese, French, and German School Texts

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